As flu spreads, students teach students about hand-washing

On Jan. 29, three members of the Granville MS Family, Career, and Community Leaders of America presented a lesson on hand washing to 25 kindergarten and first-graders at the Granville Christian Academy.

Since the flu epidemic has caused a rise in cases with children, the GMS FCCLA thought it would be a good idea to teach the lesson to prevent illness at GCA, according to a school news release.

Kira Fuller revised the hand-washing lesson presented in October at Granville Elementary School.

She made a picture bingo game to review hand washing facts and a picture test to evaluate the lesson's effectiveness for the GCA students.

Carly Mayer read a new book that Kira found on hand washing entitled, "Hooray for Hand Washing", from the American Cleaning Institute. The theme of the lesson was "Soaper Heros" to motivate young children to enjoy hand washing.

The lesson teaches children about germs, where children contact germs, when to wash their hands, and how to wash their hands. The GMS FCCLA selected a hand washing video on YouTube made by the CDS to demonstrate the proper hand washing techniques.

Children learned about how to sneeze and cough without spreading germs. During the lesson, children saw how a fake sneeze can spread germs for 20 feet.

The young students put glo germs on their hands that are on tennis balls and then washed their hands using the techniques from the lesson. GES and GCA students received "Soaper Heros" stickers when they washed their hand successfully and hand-washing bookmarks for their bingo wins.

The GMS FCCLA made "Soaper Hero" hand washing posters as a reminder of the steps in hand washing. GMS FCCLA members found that thee America Cleaning Institute has many free resources on their websites for hand washing and other topics for educators and the public.